This is the first part of the fanon Uprising. It tells the story of Fire Lord Zuko during his tenure as Fire Lord over the past 100 years after the Great War. It tells of the fate of the Fire Nation and its rise to power after the War and the subsequent rise of Zuko's grandson, the most powerful bender that the World has ever seen and the one that will decide the fate of the World at the return of Sozin's Comet. Please write a review...

Contents

The Old Fire Lord

It has been a long time since I have felt truly secure with myself and what I have become. I look into the skies above my great nation of Fire and I wonder when I last saw the great Bison, Appa, and my old friend and my helper, Aang. The sky is quiet with no bird or bison in it, all I see are Zeppelins and Planes, with the occasional black smoke of industry. I think to myself and realize how small this world has become from what it was 100 years ago. Now my people can fly around the world in a matter of days, ever faster then any Airbender. I fear war again upon this world and I wish that my uncle was still hear to guide me on, help me choose the right path, the right destiny. I have ruled for a long time and I fear that my time has come and I fear that the world will be forced to bow to the new Fire Lord, my grandson. I remember back when I was only a teenager when I became the face of the Fire Nation...

All Hail Fire Lord Zuko

Sozin's Comet finally passed by and the battle was won. I sighed as I lay in bed and thought to myself all throughout that night. But now it was time to rebuild this world that was destroyed by war and ravaged by the beast of hate. I thought to myself, "I have already restored peace to the Fire Nation, I have locked away my father, Ozai, and have put my sister in the Boiling Rock for life." The honor of my nation must have been restored when I took away the two people that were making it evil, but I guess it cannot be too easy otherwise the Avatar would not be here to restore balance to the World. Then I thought to myself and remembered what Iroh had told me long ago when I felt that restoring my honor would be the only way to survive and be accepted by my nation; he had told me about how the Avatar was so powerful. Iroh had told me that the Avatar was so powerful because he used the knowledge of the other nation to become the supreme being in the World. Using all of their strengths together without any of the weaknesses in order to beat any opponent. I look back on this moment and regret me ever thinking what I had, for this led to my worst decision of my life, the one that cost my honor and the world everything.

Sometime in the following Fall before the true rebuilding of the world had begun (seeing as the entire world went into a state of shock) I was finally given the title that I had dreamed about all my life, the title of Fire Lord. This day became a worldwide celebration that was filled with merry and festivals. In the eyes of Aang and the World, this was a transition between the age of war and the age of peace. I was to be a symbol of peace along with the Avatar and the Savior of the Fire Nation. I will remember this day for all of eternity and I will never forget the words of the Fire Sages.

"People of the Fire Nation and the World, the time of Ozai has come and gone. He was the Phoenix King, the Champion of the Fire Nation, the one who learned to fly without wings, the one that caught lightning in a jar. Ozai was the first king of the World, but his time has passed. Do not look on him with hate, he is still a late Fire Lord that needs respect and honor as do we all. But now I will pronounce the new Fire Lord. He is the Traveler of the Kingdoms, the Bridge between Fire and Earth, the Dragon of Roku. I give you Fire Lord Zuko. All hail Fire Lord Zuko. All hail Fire Lord Zuko!"

I can never forget how the Sages remembered my father as they did. But then I had to remember how they said that all needed honor and respect, but I think of how I was not given that when I needed it. This became the drive of my tenure as Fire Lord. The drive that would decide the fate of the world that the Avatar knew naught.

The Genius of Ozai

The first day after my coronation I decided that it would be necessary to start rebuilding the tenets of the Fire Nation as the first step in rebuilding the World. I remember what I had told my father on the Day of Black Sun. I had told him how the World lives in fear of our country and I now needed to make the World accept the powerful art of Firebending, to appreciate and stand in awe of it, not leave in fear and react with hatred. I look on this day and I realize now that I had chosen my countrymen over my mother and I have lived with this realization for decades and a day doesn't pass by that I regret it.

The day after my coronation the Avatar left my realm with the others, Katara, Toph, and Sokka and all the others that had spent their entire lives trying to bring down my nation. I chose to work on the Rebuilding alone, without any help from any one from Team Avatar. The Fire Nation does not need an Avatar who does not understand us, all they need is a just Fire Lord. I didn't even look upon Iroh for that much help. I simply appointed him ambassador of the Fire Nation and he, also, soon left his home for the Walls of Ba Sing Se to negotiate a formal peace agreement with the Earth Kingdom. I chose not to bring home the soldiers yet. There was simply too many, at least one million were abroad, and I didn't want to feel the destruction of the economy at the hands of a mass population increase domestically. And yet I still felt the struggle between Sozin and Roku inside of me still going on. Sozin wanted pride to the Fire Nation, to be the most powerful empire in the world, to be the dominant nation, to be the dominant element. But Roku continued to call peace and equality, rather than power, strength over hostility.

As the new Fire Lord, new information was revealed to me by the Grand Servant, the secret keeper to each Fire Lord. His name was Zotune and he poured upon me and great number of secrets that I could never have imagined, the genius of Ozai. First he took me to the northernmost point in the Fire Nation which was the most mountainous area in the country known as Kuzon's Haven. Among a ring of high mountains, there was a gigantic valley, known as Ozai's Dip, that went for miles and was not visible to anyone not on the mountains or in the valley. And what Zotune showed me was the true ingenuity of the Fire Nation and of my father. On the open field of Ozai's Dip were several hundred air ships, all stockpiled by my greedy father. All left over from Sozin's Comet. But that was not all, there were at least twenty siege drills, like the one that had attacked Ba Sing Se. I was in absolute awe at the sight of so many war machines that had not been used, but also at the sight of several large metal machines under construction, they came to be known as Giant Helicopters. This knowledge I decided to keep secret from everyone else.

Zotune then took me to the edge of Kuzon's Haven were there was a bay that was connected to the Ocean, known as Lightning Storm Bay. Zotune told me that the bay received its name 100 years ago when the great Kuzon generated so much lightning that any witness to the event partially lost their eyesight. I remembered that name from when Aang had saved my life, but at the time it was not important. The Bay appeared to be empty, but then Zotune told me to keep watching the water and out of the water came a metal ship shaped like a small air ship. Zotune told me that this vessel could go underwater for days and could sneak past enemies as if it were part of the water. Ozai had thought of the idea after hearing of them after the Day of Black Sun. I looked at the vessel and looked back at Ozai's Dip and thought of how the Fire Nation could have won the war if it had not been for Ozai's arrogance. The technology was truly the genius of Ozai

Azula's Repentance

Ozai's Mystery

As you can guess by now, I realized that Ozai, though cruel and spiteful, was a true mastermind and a genius. It was a silent trip home from Kuzon's Haven between Zutone and I. We were riding in an air ship, of all things, something that my father had mass-produced for war destruction. Zutone looked out the window, trying to avoid eye contact, and I think that he sensed me staring at him several times. I felt fear radiating from him. In an art that drives off of emotions (something that I already knew all to well), it was sometimes easy to sense what their drive was at any one time and during that trip back to the capital I felt his emotions, of fear, of regret. Zutone feared my face, my scar. I remember back several years, the fateful day of my Agni Kai, they day that the Fire Nation turned their backs on me. He was in the throne room when I opposed my father and he watched when my father scarred me and my life. I wanted him to look at me, I did not want him to fear me, I did not want to be a tyrant. Maybe I looked too much like Ozai and perhaps he feared that I was Ozai. Did he look upon my situation as simply a son setting up a coup against a father, one bloody ascendancy to throne replaced by another?

It did not take me long to ignore the fact that he feared me. All my life I had been looked at as if I were an outsider, someone different, someone that didn't belong. But now I knew I was stronger, I knew that I was the Fire Lord and there was no one that would forget it. There were now more trying matters at hand: I had learned that Ozai was more than a powerful bender, but a mastermind that could have ended the war without a comet and the other thing was what he had said that day in the dungeon... I can never forget the cruelty of my father and I can never forget my anger or my hate from that day. Sometimes and I think to myself and regret it, but deep down I think we both know it was for the best; an eye for an eye. It was a new, but tough time:

"Where is my mother?" I ask Ozai urgently and spitefully.

"This is pathetic: a Fire Lord asking for his mommy. You are a supreme leader, but you are so weak. You have the responsibilities that no one else in the world can know, but you waste valuable time trying to find some insignificant and wasteful person."

"She is not. Take that back. You know nothing about me or my duties. All you ever did was kill and what I have to do is rid the world of your disgrace." My anger was rising like boiling water.

"You're are a coward and a swine. You cannot rule this Nation. I am the Nation and people will not forget, I'll make sure you in particular will never forget. You may be Fire Lord but I will not bow to you. No matter how much grass their is, the tree will not fall."

I noticed now that the entire time that Ozai had only been looking into my right eye, never the left... "You call me the coward. Look at me." Ozai did and after he saw my left eye he immediately looked away. "You can't even look me me in my face. You can't look at what I was put through, what you made me into. Now you will pay."

I readied myself and Ozai looked up like an animal that knew it was about to get slaughtered and I remembered that face, it was mine, but it was Ozai's turn. I prepared and then shot the largest blast of fire I could muster at his left eye. It was a direct hit and Ozai was on the ground, but he did not make a sound. He was still alive, but he did not speak.

"Now, where is my mother?" I asked again.

"You will find out soon enough..."

Azula's Awakening

That day haunted me for many days until Azula's Awakening happened. After a long and quiet trip Zotune and I leave the airship once it lands at Fort Sozin, a fort that was built early on in the war by its namesake Fire Lord as a defense against possible counterattack by the Earth Kingdom. Fort Sozin had been converted into the first military air strip in the world by Ozai. By the time of our arrival my thoughts had moved on slightly from the genius of Ozai to the significance of Kuzon to the Fire Nation. All I could think of was what Aang had told me the day he had saved me from Zhao: Kuzon was an old friend of his from the Fire Nation before the War had began. I tried to think whether or not I had heard his name elsewhere in my, in my school teachings, in anything. But I could not think of it. I was thinking of asking Zotune about him, but then a more pressing matter was at hand at the time of my arrival.

When we arrived at Fort Sozin and were on the boarding platform to leave the air ship, there were two people waiting for us, but they did not look like a greeting party. It was some man I had never seen and the other was one of the Fire Sages, not the one that had crowned me as Fire Lord. Zotune and I quickened our pace to see what had happened during our trip to Kuzon's Haven.

"What is it? What happened? Is Mai alright? Is the Avatar still alive?" Zuko said very quickly, his voice trembling ever so slightly to denounce that he was afraid of their responses. The arrival of the Fire Sages at an unexpected time was notorious for bad news.

"Your current loved ones and friends are fine. But your past loved ones are not. How you would like them to be?" said the Fire Sage, quietly.

"Azula..." I muttered, but everyone heard.

"Yes, it is Azula," said the other man, "My Fire Lord, I am Izute. I oversee the prisons of th entire Fire Nation, I served as an adviser to your father and your grandfather. But that is besides the point, Azula had escaped the high security cell at the boiling rock."

"How can this be?" I asked in amazement, "She was below the water line in a five foot thick metal container, with 15 jail guards with her at all times. What happened to her mental state? She was crazy and in no proper state to break out of a cell like that."